Our destination today was the island of
Capri (pronounced kah pree).
For both
of us, we had heard about this romantic place from an early age. Joan knew that
the 50’s singer Gracie Fields had a home there. In my case I remember my
siblings playing a popular German song back in the 50’s with the lyrics
O wenn bei Kapri
die rote Sonne
ins Meer versinkt,
dann gehen die Fischer
auf ihren Schiffen
ins Meer hinaus…
die rote Sonne
ins Meer versinkt,
dann gehen die Fischer
auf ihren Schiffen
ins Meer hinaus…
Someone please write me details about his
song.
The reality of the island didn’t quite
co-incide with the dreamy image we held. This is tourist central and was packed
with people – at least in the central piazza precincts of two main communities of Capri (142m) and Anacapri
(286m).
I’m getting ahead of myself. After arriving by ferry from Sorrento, we
ascended a funicular from the port area to the town of Capri. Tourist central
means shops galore. The mystery is how they make a living – none of them had
any customers we could see.
Almost immediately we boarded one of the
cute little buses for the further ascent to Anacapri.
To get there the road literally climbs up along the side of a vertical cliff.
At one point the roadway is actually suspended outside the cliff face. And it
has switch-backs – all exciting stuff, especially when you are standing as we
were.
As advised by Rick Steve, we alighted at the second stop – cemetery station, and
walked back into Anacapri. As usual we got disoriented (i.e. lost, because the €1
tourist map only had names on the major streets – my hair is getting much
thinner). Fortunately helpful locals pointed us in the right direction.
Our plan had been to go even higher, taking
the chairlift to Monte Solara (589m).
Over the last week I had been observing Capri from Naples, Sorrento,
Herculaneum and Pompeii, and noticed that it always had cloud covering the highest part, so we were of two minds
about whether to do this. But then I noticed a peak with a cross that was lit
by sunshine, so we decided to go for it. Only after getting on the chairlift
did I realise we were going to a different, higher peak. Sure enough, as we
approached the summit we entered cloudland. This was similar to our experience
on Vesuvius, only more so. Not having much previous experience of this, it was
great to revel in something different. I was interested to note that a) it can
have such a noticeable effect even at short range, say 5m and b) that we did
not accumulate any obvious layer of moisture.
We had lunch back down in Anacapri at a
place at the edge of town where fortunately a tour group was vacating places to
sit. We had an excellent ravioli caprese (for
the thick, including me, ravioli from Capri) accompanied by an excellent 2009 Aglianco as recommended by Brian.
Afterward we headed to the main attractions
– two San Michele’s. One was a church
with a painted tile floor depicting heaven on earth and the expulsion of Adam
and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The animals all have human expressions.
Overview from the balcony |
Overview from the balcony |
The
other was an estate created by a Swedish doctor/socialite Axel Munthe
(1857-1949) in the early part of the 20th century. He was visited by
Oscar Wilde, DH Lawrence and the Queen of Sweden, who came to live on the
island for her “health”. He had a keen sense for good real estate, as the
location is absolutely superb, with fantastic views down to Capri and the port,
and across to the mainland and Naples. At the cliff end of the property was a
derelict chapel San Michele which he
refurbished and made into his library. On the seaward end is a sphinx looking
out over the sea. He gifted the estate to the Swedish government, which has a consulate next door.
At the entrance - he was an animal lover |
What a nice man |
The Sphinx |
Port of Capri and mainland |
This is the road!! |
The Sphinx from lower level |
On the way back to the bus we dropped into the Casa Rosa, a house belonging to an American general from the Confederacy.
Back in the port area, as we were about to
buy tickets for the ferry back to Sorrento, we were approached by an elderly
American woman offering two tickets they had bought for someone who could not make
it. The tickets seemed genuine (never having seen these before – trusting souls
that we are) so we got them at a slight discount. Everyone happy.
This is the first day for over a week that we
have returned home in good shape, with feet that did not hurt. Yippee!
For dinner we had self-delivered take-away
pizza and another 2009 Aglianico.
Dessert was left-over biscotti.
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